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Oakmont Regional High School grads will 'remember these days'

Sentinel & Enterprise

Updated:
06/08/2016 05:32:18 PM EDT

From left, Gabriel Harding, Therese Rembetsy-Brown, Andrew Bedard and Chad DeLisle perform "Remember These Days" an original song written by Rembetsy-Brown as a class tribute. For slide show and video, visit sentinelandenterprise.com. SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE PHOTOS / Jim Marabello

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ASHBURNHAM -- Oakmont Regional High School's Class of 2016 received diplomas in a ceremony Sunday held in the school's gymnasium.

Number of graduates: 164

Number in National Honor Society: 34

Notable moment: The ceremony featured a moment of silence in honor of Rachel Lee, a member of the Class of 2016 who lost a battle with cancer in fifth grade. It was the 56th commencement in school history.

The ceremony also featured a performance of "Remember These Days," a song written by Class of 2016 member Therese Rembetsy-Brown, accompanied by classmates Chad DeLisle, Andrew Bedard and Gabriel Harding.

Rain was falling outside and the tears were flowing inside the Oakmont Regional High School gym during Sunday's graduation. SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE PHOTOS / JIM MARABELLO

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Speaker highlights:

"Getting through high school every day was difficult. We had a lot of navigating to do. We had to decide what our plan was after we were done. Most of us didn't even know what we were having to dinner that night and we were being talked into decisions for the rest of our lives."

-- Skylar Alves,

class president

"It's time to go. It's time to leave Oakmont and go onto the next exciting chapter in our lives."

-- Vanessa Archangelo,

class student council president

"Somewhere along the way, we became part of something bigger. ...We began to understand what sadness is, what stress feels like, and, more importantly, to empathize. If we felt that way, our friends could, too.

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We are not alone. We learned what it means to care, to offer a helping hand, to make a difference."

-- Morgan Beatty,

class salutatorian

"As this one-twentieth of our lives comes to a close, there's no telling where we'll go next or what the next four years will bring. Or the four years after that or the four years after that. You'll write new songs, tell new stories. Maybe someone will hit it big and make a million, maybe someone will save a life or many.

Salutatorian Morgan Beatty speaks.

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Maybe one of you will invent something that changes how we live. Maybe I'll see some of you on the news someday."

-- Marietta Shale Carey,

class valedictorian

"The Class of 2016 has excelled every year they've been in school. ... I'm proud to have witnessed the growth of this class on the stage, in the art studio, on the athletic fields, tech labs and in the classroom. This class is defined by high test scores, athletic championships, excellence in art, music, engineering, robotics, mathematics, writing, drama."

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